Are you a STREET PUPPET?

STREET PUPPETS are people
who feel that the only way they can ever
be accepted by anyone is to just go along
with "the crowd" when "the crowd" wants
them to do something wrong.

It doesn't matter how dumb
this wrong thing may be.

It doesn't matter how harmful it may be.

It doesn't matter how ridiculous it may appear.

The street puppets' goal is to be accepted,
and they will do just about anything
to see that it happens.

It's too bad that people who get easily
misled by their friends don't understand that
one's value as an individual is not based
on performance,

but rather on character.

Anthony sure didn't understand this.

The true story of Anthony is a good example of
how easy it is for some people to get trapped into
doing things they really don't want to do –
just to be accepted by their friends.

Anthony was a slender 16-year-old boy who
never thought he'd find himself in the kind of
trouble he was in.

After all, he had never even been sent to the
principal's office much less to a juvenile jail.

As he stood looking out the narrow window
from his cramped cell, Anthony kept asking
himself the same questions over and over again.

"What am I doing here?"

"How did I get into this mess?"

"How did this happen?"

Anthony's problems started when his family
moved from North Carolina to a small town
in Minnesota. He was new to his high
school and really wanted to be accepted.

One day, a small group of boys

came up to Anthony and asked him if he
wanted to go to a beer party that evening.
Anthony had never been drinking before in his life.

He didn't like the taste of the stuff
and never saw a need
to do something he didn't like
just to hang out with friends.

But because he wanted to be accepted in
his new school, Anthony put aside all that for
now and agreed to go to the party.

At the party, Anthony drank just one can of
beer. Even that was tough for him to take.

But Anthony's drinking just one can of beer
didn't stop his "friends" from asking him to go to
another party.

He went to that party and drank,

then to another party and drank,

and to still another party and drank.

It got to a point where Anthony wasn't
drinking just one can of beer anymore.

He was drinking a six-pack

and some vodka

and some rum.

Anthony liked hanging out with his new
friends. Even though they did things that
were totally against what he believed in,

hanging out with these people gave Anthony

a sense of importance,

of acceptance,

like he was somebody special or something.

Anthony actually believed that the people he
was hanging out with were the kind of
friends who would be there for him if he ever
really needed them.

This gave Anthony a feeling of security
he had never had before in his life.

But there was also a dark side
to this whole situation.

The boy who'd never been drinking before,

the boy who had always tried
to do the right thing in life,

the boy who had put aside his values
just to be accepted

was now developing
a serious drinking problem.

Anthony was at a point
where he would drink just about anything
his friends put in front of him.

But having a drinking problem was the last
thing on Anthony's mind.

Just having someone to hang around with
was all that mattered to him now.

Then came that one evening.

Anthony went to one of his parties as usual.
When he walked into the house, he saw his "friends"
sitting in a circle on the living room floor.

Thinking nothing of it, Anthony sat with them.

Shortly after he had sat down, someone
pulled out a marijuana cigarette,

lit it up, took a drag,

and passed it to the next person in the circle.

This person also took a drag, and so on.

The marijuana got to Anthony. Everyone
waited for him to take a drag. He stared at
the joint for a moment, then raised his head,
and slowly moved his eyes around the circle.
As he was doing this, his mind began to race.

"I don't want this garbage," he thought.
"Drinking is messin' me up enough.
I don't want this. No way
am I fooling around with this stuff."

He then passed the joint to the next person
without taking a drag.

"What's the matter?" one boy said in a
sarcastic tone. "Too strong for you? Want a
candy joint instead?"

Everyone in the circle laughed.

"Give me a break, kid,"
another said to Anthony.
"I didn't think you were such a baby."

Suddenly an uneasy feeling crept into
Anthony's body. As he looked around, the
faces he once knew were no longer familiar,
but rather dark shadows of people he had
never met before. This made Anthony feel
really uncomfortable – so much so that he
wanted to leave.

But as Anthony tried to stand up, something
peculiar happened:

He couldn't seem to get off the floor.

It was like he was glued to the carpet.

The heavy hand of "rejection" literally held
Anthony in place. He was afraid that if he
left that party, people would make fun of him,
and no one would ever want to hang out
with him anymore.

So he stayed.

The marijuana kept going around,
and Anthony kept passing it on.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Open up," the voice on the other side said.
"It's the police. We got a complaint
of too much noise. Open the door."

As everyone scrambled to try to get away,
the front door slammed open, and the police
came in, arresting everyone for possession
of a controlled substance.

As Anthony was being handcuffed, he turned
to his friends for support.

"Would someone tell them I didn't do
anything? Tell them I didn't do nothing."

Anthony expected his friends to speak
up for him.

He actually expected someone to "cover his
back." But no one said anything. Some just
looked away, while others smirked.

"Come on!" Anthony said in an anxious
voice. "Quit messin' around!

"You know I didn't do anything.
Tell them! Tell them!"

Once again, silence. The only thing that could
be heard was the clicking of the handcuffs.

Anthony slowly hung his head. A look of
anger and frustration showed on his face as
he was led out the front door.

"All that time wasted,"
he thought.

"All that time wasted
trying to get people to like me.

"And what do I have to show for it?

"A pair of handcuffs,

a drinking problem,

and a bunch of 'coconuts'
I thought were friends."

Anthony served time at Hyland Detention
Center, then was sent to an alcohol treatment
facility to get help with his drinking problem.

But Anthony's story doesn't end there.

Shortly after, his family moved again – this
time to a town in southern Minnesota.

Anthony was new to his high school and
wanted to be accepted. One day, a boy
from the "in crowd" came up to Anthony's
locker and invited him to a beer party.

Anthony raised his head, looked the boy
squarely in the eye, and said in a slow, soft,
but firm voice:

"A beer party?
I don't want to go to your beer party."

There was a pause as Anthony gathered his
books for the next class.

The boy from the "in crowd"
looked at Anthony strangely.

"No," Anthony said again as he put his books
in his backpack. "I don't want to go to your
party."

Another pause ...

"And if you're smart,"

he said as he closed his locker door,

"you don't want to go either."

 

E-mail the author about any questions
or comments you may have
or
about your experiences
regarding this topic.

ranch@copper.net

Your information may be
posted on this site
and
may be of some help
to other teens.

All e-mails are strictly confidential.
No names will be used.

 

In this web site, teenage issues and problems
such as pregnancy, suicide, depression,
teen sex and abstinence, divorce and family
problems along with making the right choices
in life are discussed.